2019 PDC World Darts Championship

won the World Championship for the third time in his career. The prize money for the tournament was £2,500,000 in total, £700,000 more than 2018. The winner's prize money was £500,000, adding £100,000 to the previous year's winners share. It was the first ever World Darts Championship to match Snooker in prize money received for the eventual World Champion during the same calendar year. At the time of the last unified World Darts Championship in 1993 the Snooker World Champion received almost 6 times more prize money than the Darts equivalent. It would also be the first World Darts Championship to have a greater overall prize fund to that of the World Snooker Championship. (Compared to 8x more prize money for the Crucible over Lakeside in 1993) ==Qualification==

Qualifiers Order of MeritSecond round (seeded) Michael van Gerwen (champion) Rob Cross (fourth round) Peter Wright (second round) Gary Anderson (semi-finals) Daryl Gurney (third round) Gerwyn Price (second round) Mensur Suljović (second round) Simon Whitlock (second round) James Wade (fourth round) Michael Smith (runner-up) Ian White (second round) Dave Chisnall (quarter-finals) Darren Webster (second round) Joe Cullen (second round) Jonny Clayton (second round) Adrian Lewis (fourth round)   Stephen Bunting (second round) Mervyn King (third round) Steve Beaton (second round) Kim Huybrechts (third round) Steve West (third round) John Henderson (third round) Jelle Klaasen (second round) Alan Norris (third round) James Wilson (second round) Kyle Anderson (third round) Jamie Lewis (fourth round) Jermaine Wattimena (third round) Benito van de Pas (fourth round) Cristo Reyes (third round) Max Hopp (third round) Pro Tour Order of MeritFirst Round • Danny Noppert (second round) • Krzysztof Ratajski (first round) • Ricky Evans (first round) • Jeffrey de Zwaan (second round) • Steve Lennon (second round) • Chris Dobey (fourth round) • Martin Schindler (first round) • Josh Payne (second round) • Gabriel Clemens (second round) • Ryan Joyce (quarter-finals) • Richard North (second round) • Keegan Brown (third round) • Mickey Mansell (first round) • Robert Thornton (first round) • Jan Dekker (second round) • Nathan Aspinall (semi-finals) • Ron Meulenkamp (second round) • Brendan Dolan (quarter-finals) • William O'Connor (third round) • Vincent van der Voort (third round) • Michael Barnard (second round) • Toni Alcinas (third round) • Paul Nicholson (first round) • Simon Stevenson (first round) • Luke Humphries (quarter-finals) • Jeffrey de Graaf (first round) • • Alan Tabern (second round) • Wayne Jones (first round) • Ross Smith (second round) • Ryan Searle (fourth round) • Matthew Edgar (first round) International QualifiersFirst round • Seigo Asada – PDJ Qualifier (second round) • Lisa Ashton – Women's Qualifier (first round) • James Bailey – Oceanic Masters (first round) • Kevin Burness – Irish Matchplay Champion (second round) • Stephen Burton – PDPA Qualifier (first round) • José de Sousa – South/West Europe Qualifier (first round) • Anastasia Dobromyslova – Women's Qualifier (first round) • Ted Evetts – Development Tour (second round) • Adam Hunt – PDPA Qualifier (first round) • Nitin Kumar – Indian Qualifier (first round) • Royden Lam – Asian Tour (first round) • Robert Marijanović – German Super League (first round) • Yordi Meeuwisse – Western Europe Qualifier (first round) • Geert Nentjes – Development Tour (first round) • Chuck Puleo – CDC Tour (first round) • Jeff Smith – North American Champion (first round) • Raymond Smith – DPA Tour (first round) Rob Cross was second seed and reigning champion, having won the 2018 championship on his debut. Edgar took the final qualification place after 2018 UK Open runner-up Corey Cadby withdrew. The international qualifiers included new Indian and African qualifiers, and the Southern Europe qualifier being split into South/West and South/East. Tahuna Irwin, who won the New Zealand qualifier, had to withdraw after being denied entry to the UK, and subsequently being banned from entry, when attempting to compete in the 2018 PDC World Youth Championship. His place was given to the New Zealand runner-up, Craig Ross. while the UK tournament was won by four time women's world champion, and reigning 2018 champion, Lisa Ashton. Jim Long, Noel Malicdem, Yordi Meeuwisse, Geert Nentjes, Chuck Puleo, Craig Ross, Karel Sedláček and Raymond Smith. Labanauskas was the first ever Lithuanian to qualify for the PDC World Championship. ==Summary==

, the tenth seed, was runner-up after reaching his first World Championship final. The top quarter of the draw saw number one seed Michael van Gerwen easily reach the quarter-final, knocking Alan Tabern out in the second round despite having beer thrown at him during the walk on, before consecutive 4–1 victories over Max Hopp and former world champion Adrian Lewis. Other former champion Raymond van Barneveld was eliminated in the second round following a 3–2 loss to Darius Labanauskas. James Wade controversially beat Seigo Asada in the second round, having been perceived to have shouted in his opponent's face after winning the second set, and saying after the match that he "wanted to hurt" Asada; Wade subsequently apologised, citing a hypomania episode. Wade was eliminated in the fourth round by debutant Ryan Joyce. In the quarter-final, van Gerwen triumphed over Joyce, 5–1, to qualify for the semi-final for the sixth time in seven championships. In the second quarter, fourth seed Gary Anderson had to come through last-set deciders against Jermaine Wattimena before 4–0 wins over Kim Huybrechts before beating Cristo Reyes 4–0 in the third round. Two-time consecutive world youth champion Dimitri Van den Bergh was beaten by two-time consecutive Development Tour winner Luke Humphries in the third round. In round four, Humphries played Cross. The defending champion went 2–0 up, before Humphries fought back to win 4–2 and end Cross's reign. and tenth-seed Michael Smith eliminated Ron Meulenkamp before beating John Henderson and Searle to reach the quarter-final. Smith secured a semi-final slot with a 5–1 win over Humphries. sixth-seed Gerwyn Price being eliminated by Nathan Aspinall, eleventh-seeded Ian White losing to South African Devon Petersen Further seeds were eliminated in the third round, with thirtieth seed Benito van de Pas being the only seed from this quarter in the fourth round, In the second semi-final, Anderson played van Gerwen in a repeat of the 2017 final. After van Gerwen won the first set in a last-leg decider, he then won twelve of the next thirteen legs to quickly take a 5–0 lead in the first-to-six match. Anderson managed to avoid the whitewash by winning the sixth set, but van Gerwen completed the rout in the next set, qualifying for the final for the fourth time in his career. In the final, held on New Year's Day 2019, van Gerwen won the first two legs before missing one set-dart in each of the next two legs for Smith to force a last-leg set decider, which van Gerwen won. Van Gerwen broke Smith's throw with a 3–1 win in the second set, and lengthened his lead by taking the third set by the same scoreline. Smith lost the fourth set after missing four darts at double 12 in the decider, but won the fifth set 3–2 to avoid the whitewash and took the sixth set 3–0. Van Gerwen restored his three-set advantage with a 3–1 win in the seventh set. Smith missed three darts for the eighth set, which van Gerwen won to go one set away from victory. The ninth set went to a deciding leg, which Smith won to prolong the match. Van Gerwen took the first two legs in the tenth set, and missed one dart for the championship in the third leg; in the next, he hit double 16 to take the set and win the World Championship for the third time. ==Schedule==

Finals Top half Section 1 Section 2 Bottom half Section 3 Section 4 ==Final==

This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament. ==Representation==

This table shows the number of players by country in the 2019 PDC World Championship. A total of 28 nationalities were represented, the most ever at a darts world championship. The second round sees an increase in participation for some countries due to the first round bye for the 32 highest ranked players. ==References==